The application of an electric field changes the symmetry of the crystal and drives a transition from a metal (left) to an insulator (right) (Copyright He/Franchini).
Researchers succeed in controlling multiple quantum interactions in a realistic material. Materials with controllable quantum mechanical properties are of great importance for the electronics and quantum computers of the future. However, finding or designing realistic materials that actually have these effects is a big challenge. Now, an international theory and computational team led by Cesare Franchini from the University of Vienna, find that multiple quantum interactions can coexist in a single real material and show how an electric field can be used to control them. The results of this research are now published. Next generation electronics and quantum computers rely on materials that exhibit quantum-mechanical phenomena and related properties, which can be controlled by external stimuli, e.g. by a battery in a microelectronic circuit. Quantum mechanics governs, for example, how fast - and if at all- electrons can move through a material and, thereby, determine whether the material is a metal which conducts an electric current or whether it is an insulator which cannot conduct a current.
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